Ask HN: Multi-Monitor w/ Laptop?

[erictobia]

I've been running two monitors on my desktop pc for a few years now and I really like it. In fact I'd say it's a requirement for me.

My next pc purchase will in all likelihood be a laptop. When I'm at home (or at the office) I'd like to maintain a multi-monitor setup with my 2 LCDs. My first thought was to use a docking station to pull this off.

Has anyone had any luck running a laptop in a multi-monitor scenario using a docking station? Are there any docking stations out there that support this?

If found this...

http://www.digitaltigers.com/sidecar.asp

...but it seems kind of expensive.

Any thoughts? Recommendations?

Thanks!

[LogicHoleFlaw]

I've got a standard Dell docking station with both an external monitor and the laptop's LCD panel working together. It was pretty straightforward. The only tricky bit for me (on Ubuntu) is not being able to directly undock and have it intelligently deal with the disappearance of the external display. I still don't have a good solution for that one.

[jwilliams → LogicHoleFlaw]

At my old employer I used to have a Dell (620 I believe).

The docking station had a DVI and VGA output. You could either:

1. Run two LCDs off the VGA and DVI.

2. Run one LCD off either and the laptop screen.

I was doing #1 successfully.

[jlogic77]

I run 3 monitors.

1. Open Laptop 2. 22" Widescreen LCD connected to laptop 3. 17" LCD to a desktop computer

Desktop and Laptop share a keyboard and mouse using Synergy. http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ which makes it seamless to use!